348 Parking Brake Adjustment

Oh thats easy, here you go:

1) Lift the car off the ground

2) Remove the wheel/s

3) Unscrew the two bolts (on the back) holding the break caliper to the wheel hub, and slide the caliper off. You can use an old wire coat hanger to suspend the caliper. DO NOT let the caliper hang from the break line.

4) Remove the two little retaining/alignment screws on the front of the rotor

5) Remove the rotor


That's it.

Happy wrenching.

 

Either way.

 

You say your cable is "already at the limit of its adjustment", but the handbrake still doesn't hold. This is a bit troubling. I suspect that your car has been driven with the handbrake set, and that the friction material on the handbrake shoes has been worn beyond safe limits. I would strongly advise that you don't just do an adjustment without pulling both rotors first to do a visual inspection on the shoes and the handbrake drums. If the shoes are worn out, you'll never get proper operation out of the handbrake, no matter how tight you adjust it. Worn shoes should be able to be relined at a commercial brake/clutch shop. If the drum is badly worn or cracked, you will need to replace the rear rotors as well.

One other thing - make sure you back off the cable adjustment before you attempt to remove the rotors or adjust the handbrake shoes. You want to start from scratch at the shoe adjustment, do both sides, THEN adjust the cable for about 4 clicks of travel on the handbrake lever.

 

Just on the shoes. The parking break works like old school drum breaks.

 

There is friction material on the shoes only, not on the drum surface of the rotor. I don't think the manual lists the thickness for new material on the handbrake shoes, I would guess it is around 3.5 - 4.0 mm. They also don't list a specification for the diameter/wear limit of the handbrake drum. I happen to have a new rear rotor sitting here on my desk, but my caliper gauge doesn't open up far enough to measure it. The rotor should be reusable unless the drum is really, really badly worn. I don't think there is enough "meat" there to safely resurface the drum inside the rotor.

 

Isn´t there an adjustment cable under the car......left side somewhere in the middle?????

I always spray some oil on that one as soon as I am "down there".

Haven´t done it yet but assumed there was the point to adjust the handbrake first of all. As long as the pads are ok that is.

//B//

 

Yes there is and it is to adjust the tension/travel for the break handle. But even if you have that cable tightened all the way you still may not be putting the proper amount of force to the break shoes.

When you adjust that cable you are shortening the distance that handle has to be pulled to set the parking break. Then there is the adjustment wheel inside the drum, between the top of the two break shoes. When that gets adjusted it sets the drag that the shoes have inside the drum. I call it a drum but it's actually the inside of the rear break rotor. Both need to be set up correctly so that the break handle doesn't have to be pulled up so far in order for the parking break to hold the car still, and so that the break shoes are close enough to actually hold the car still. The farther the parking break shoe is from the inside of the drum, the more you have to pull the handle to get the break to set. Like wise the looser the break cable is the higher you will need to pull the handle to set parking break. Soooooo.................you need to adjust both. It is best to set the drag for the break shoes first, and then set the tension for the parking break handle.

It's sort of like setting up the breaks for a bicycle. Even if you have the break handle squeezed all the way it is still possible for the breaks not to stop the bike. You need to have the pads close enough to the rim so that when you squeeze the handle the breaks bite. If you have the pads too close it will be hard to peddle. So you want both to be set up just right. Same deal for the parking break, but we aren't trying to stop the car, just hold it still.

Capiche?

 

Si Signor....got it

//B//

 

Sweet...

Don't you love the DIY help on this site?!

 

Thanks for the update Eric. Glad to hear it's working fine.